At the science and nonduality conference I intend to make the subject of evolutionary ways of thinking part of what I present. I believe that the American Pragmatists were practicing an evolutionary form of thinking …
Evolutionary Nonduality and Ralph Waldo Emerson
Evolutionary Nonduality, at least as it is taught by Andrew Cohen, is ultimately about recognizing that we are not separate from the entire process of cosmic evolution. We tend to relate to the idea of …
A Philosophy of Pure Experience
Here is my second post exploring some of the ideas that are informing me as I prepare for my presentaion at the Science and Nonduality Conference. William James over the course of his life developed …
Life without the Background
On Friday October 22nd I will be presenting at the Science and Nonduality Conference in San Rafael, California. The topic of my presentation will be Evolutionary Non-duality, and I will introduce people to the same …
William James and social trust
James’ decidedly Existentialist leanings may have resulted from his own existential crisis. Soon after completing his medical degree from Harvard, while in a psychiatric ward, James noticed a severely mentally ill patient and was suddenly …
William James, American Existentialist
William Barrett introduced the philosophy of Existentialism to American academia with the publication of his book Irrational Man. In the book he is clear to state that Existentialism is strictly Continental European philosophical movement. Although …
Romanticism and Existential Philosophy
I have bee recently reading a book called “Irrational Man” by William Barrett. It was originally written in 1962 and it is generally recognized as the book that introduced the Existential philosophy of continental Europe …
Philosophy vs. Spirituality
I wanted to write a few words about what I see as the difference between philosophy and spirituality. I realize, naturally, that anything I say can only be some overly generalized distinction that may be …
Emerson’s Legacy: Process Philosophy and the Self
It is uncanny as you read more and more of Emerson how you can see the seeds of so much of American philosophy in his work. As I have said Pragmatism is the most significant …
Emerson’s Ecological Thought
I am heading off to a retreat for a month and so I will be reducing my posts to one a week on Thursdays for a while now. I hope that you enjoy my last …
What is the difference between Philosophy and Spirituality?
“What is the difference between Philosophy and Spirituality?” This is a question that has been propelling much of my efforts in writing this blog. Generally here I have limited my meandering thoughts to those ideas …
Emerson’s Process Philosophy
The American Pragmatists outlined in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries a profound evolutionary process philosophy. The view of reality they explored was one in which all of reality was seen as an unending …
Emerson’s Call to Greatness
When I ask myself who was Ralph Waldo Emerson the answer that comes to my mind is that he was a call to greatness. Throughout all of his writing what can be heard is a …
Evolution, Enlightenment and Reincarnation: Part 3
In Emerson’s new account of evolutionary spirituality the human soul is on a journey of its own creation – a journey from its original source through the process of manifestation to a perfected state of …
Evolution, Enlightenment and Reincarnation: Part 2
Emerson wondered how would it be possible to evolve to the perfected state in the span of only one lifetime given the weight and drag that Fate places on human development? How could a man …
Truth as Fact, Truth as Commitment
I have taken up the practice of listening regularly to the podcasts of classes by Dr. Hubert Dreyfus of the University of California at Berkeley. Recently I was very taken by something he was saying …
Evolution, Enlightenment and Reincarnation: Part 1
In 1860 Ralph Waldo Emerson published an essay called Fate in a collection called The Conduct of Life. This essay is written by a mature Emerson, a man who has worked and taught for nearly …
Kant, Coleridge and the Power of Intuition
My current presentation of the evolutionary ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson is a good place for a discussion about epistemology to fall in. How do we know what we know? is the question that epistemology …
Spiritual Realism and Process Philosophy
As I have read through Emerson’s writing I see two aspects to his metaphysics. On the one hand he describes a spiritual Realism in which the collective human soul of humanity exists in a transcendent …
Emerson’s Dualistic Idealism
Emerson was an Idealist. He believed that ultimately some form of mind was the foundation for the rest of reality. His spiritual teaching about Self-Reliance and the Over-soul are all based on his idealism. In …